Tom Hayden, long time anti war activist, has a very interesting article on TPM entitled "Was Georgia a Neo-Con Conspiracy? A Lesson for Obama."
It now appears that the same neo-conservatives who manipulated the US into the Iraq war on false evidence were directly involved in backing Georgia's ill-fated operation on August 7-8, which eyewitness military observers have described as indiscriminate attacks by Georgia on Russian and civilian positions. The observers reports, first made in August and then October to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, were disclosed in the New York Times three days after the presidential election.
The new evidence increases the likelihood that the August 7-8 clash between Georgia and Russia was an "October Surprise" that would highlight John McCain's greater foreign policy experience at the height of the presidential election.
More, after the fold.
Remember how John McCain exclaimed "we are all Georgians now"?
McCain said he spoke with President "Misha" Saakashvili today and reassured him that "the thoughts and the prayers and support of the American people are with that brave little nation as they struggle for their freedom and independence."
"And he wanted me to say thank you to you, to give you his heartfelt thanks for the support of the American people for this tiny little democracy far away from the United States of America," McCain said of his conversation with Saakashvili. "And I told him that I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"
snip
If there was any doubt that the McCain campaign would try to use this week to emphasize McCain's foreign policy credentials in light of the current conflict in Georgia then today's town hall put those to bed.
msnbc.com, First Read, August 12, 2008
The fighting occurred shortly before the Democratic convention in Denver. An August surprise?
The evidence is still sketchy and circumstantial, but well worth further inquiry.
Hayden lays out the case and it begins with Randy Scheunemann, McCain's top foreign policy adviser, former director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, former member of the PNAC, and new found admirer of Sarah Palin:
Scheunemann became a registered foreign agent for Mikheil Saakashvili's Georgian government when it came to power in 2004, making $800,000 in fees for his lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, until the relationship on May 15 was formally terminated under McCain's 2008 campaign rules.
In those years, McCain traveled to Georgia more than once, nominated his "close friend" Saakashvili for a Nobel Prize in 2005, engineered support for Georgia through the Republican Democracy Institute, and supported the US training of combat forces there. With Schuenemann as his adviser, Saakashvili had campaigned on a platform of taking back South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Schuenemann was also his lobbyist when Saakashvili sent troops to retake two other separatist enclaves, Ajaria in 2004, and upper Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia in 2006, both over Russian objections. Schuenemann and McCain visited Georgia again in 2006.
Tom Hayden on TPM: "Was Georgia a Neo-Con Conspiracy? A Lesson for Obama."
In 1999, Scheunemann invented the neo-conservative battle cry of "rolling back rogue states." This guy is neo-con war mongering personified.
Maybe it was winks and nods from Scheunemann to Saakashvili? Saakashvili clearly believed that the US would support his attack on Ossetia. Of course, the Bush administration trained Georgian troops and had just finished a joint training exercise the month before. Maybe Scheunemann didn't know exactly when, but anticipated. Or maybe it was just luck and McCain jumped on it to push his foreign policy creds?
Hayden asks "what did he know and when did he know it"?
Now that Georgia's August 7 operation appears to have been pre-planned and deliberate, is it possible to believe that Scheunemann was unaware of a scenario that closely matched the August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident? Before this becomes yesterday's news, someone should ask what did he know and when did he know it? Did the US advisers to the Georgian military know and not report the facts?
Tom Hayden on TPM: "Was Georgia a Neo-Con Conspiracy? A Lesson for Obama."
I hate to say it and sound like a conspiracy theorist, but with the hard core neo-cons, anything is possible. Perhaps McCain just took advantage of a lucky break. Or perhaps Mr. Scheunemann and other neo-cons made their own luck.